What To Write About When You Have Blogger’s Block

Blogger’s block: It happens. When this writing interference starts to take over creative control, you need a backup content-producing plan to still get the project done above standard and on time.

Going back to my newspaperwoman roots, I refer to these 11 attributes — known as newsworthy qualities — to spark original ideas and help develop sound deadline-driven blog posts:

Impact: Jump on story ideas that connect to the larger community. Any time you can measure what effects certain events have on readers, take that angle and run with it.

Controversial: National debates, arguments and drag-out fights (not that I promote violence) make for engaging posts to analyze along with your audience.

Weight: Write ups that carry a lot of weight serve as strong starting points for generating content. For instance, covering a story about a recent celebrity death outweighs one about a celebrity injury.

Emotional: Heroic acts and feel-good features always win to share with readers, especially when content connects to their personal lives.

Unusual: You can’t beat the bizarre in blogging about the news, along with largests, leasts and firsts. Superlatives hardly ever fail to pique readers’ interest to click and learn more information.

Prominence: Remember: Popular people, places and things can consistently spur blogging topics to explore. Just make sure you give coverage brand-new slants to keep readers engaged.

Proximity: Cover blogging subject matter that matters to your immediate community/audience — basically, people/places they know, not topics they’re not connected to in their everyday space.

Timeliness: Stay on top of the here and now. Advance yesterday’s headlines with updated information to keep hot topics fresh and readers in the know.

Currency: Pay attention to trending topics on social media and creatively connect dots for readers using photo stories and illustrations if possible.

Usefulness: Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to help readers solve problems and find answer to their personal, professional lives; post a survey on your social media channels to see what readers are interested in or having issues with. Then, create content that addresses their concerns.

Educational Value: Instead of merely writing about what is currently happening in society, give blogging posts value by educating readers about the effects, pros/cons, how-to steps and do-it-yourself knowledge to explore a topic in more depth.